Wednesday, September 19, 2012

House of Horrors at SF State Today

Bloody dolls. Bodies on stretchers. It wasn't Halloween at San Francisco State University today- it was the General Union of Palestinian students resorting to every cheap trick in their playbook to demonize Israel. The podium of Malcolm X Plaza was highlighted by a huge "Zionism is Racism" sign, along with sign showing a fist smashing through a star of David. Yeah, GUPS isn't willing to accept a Jewish state of Israel within any borders. They've made that abundantly clear.

Todays' hate-fest was meant to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. Lebanese Christian Phalangist militias were allowed by Israeli troops to enter the refugee camps on September 16–17, 1982, in an effort to root out terror cells. The Phalangists left hundreds dead in retaliation for the murders of Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel and 25 of his supporters earlier that week.

The GUPS presentation was long on vitriol, but short on information, on history, and on facts. More signs read "Stop USA Aid to Israel". "Stop killing Priests and destroying Houses of Worship". "Aren't you tired of Israel playing the victim?" "The Only Peace Israel Wants is the Last Piece of Palestine". What really happened at Sabra and Shatila? You'd never actually know listening to GUPS.

Israel had allowed the Phalange to enter the camps as part of a plan to transfer authority to the Lebanese, and accepted responsibility for that decision. The Kahan Commission of Inquiry, formed by the Israeli government in response to public outrage and grief, found that Israel was indirectly responsible for not anticipating the possibility of Phalangist violence. Subsequently, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon resigned and the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Raful Eitan, was dismissed. The Kahan Commission, declared former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, was “a great tribute to Israeli democracy. . . . There are very few governments in the world that one can imagine making such a public investigation of such a difficult and shameful episode.” Ironically, while 300,000 Israelis protested the killings, little or no reaction occurred in the Arab world. Outside the Middle East, a major international outcry against Israel erupted over the massacres. The Phalangists, who perpetrated the crime, were spared the brunt of the condemnations for it.

Today GUPS did the same, exploiting the deaths of innocents to score cheap rhetorical points against Israel. But their tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing was largely ignored by the students hurrying to their classes.